Taste Panel Chefs
The story of our Taste Panel Chefs features three of the best French Chefs in the country – the late Jean-Louis Palladin, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Daniel Boulud.
When we first began our journey to make the best quality grapeseed oil in America back in 1991, we were fortunate to meet Chef Jean-Louis Palladin. Valentin’s best friend Georg was managing the Jean-Louis Restaurant in Washington DC and set up a meeting with Chef.
We discovered that Jean-Louis had been a devoted grapeseed oil user for the last 25 years – the problem was he couldn’t get it consistently! Sometimes it was green, sometimes rancid, or it wasn’t available at all!
So Valentin proposed his ultimate plan to Jean-Louis: “Lets make it here in America but cold pressed!” Jean-Louis loved this idea!
Always eager to help small purveyors create the best ingredients for chefs, Chef Jean-Louis picked up the phone to call his chef friends in NY to let them know “I’m here with this Austrian guy who wants to make grapeseed oil here in America”
That call created our taste panel – Jean-Louis Palladin, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Daniel Boulud – selecting the best grapeseed oil from various options that would become Salute Santé! Produced by an oil making family in Italy, they now utilize our cold pressing technology and still make our Salute Santé! to this day!
Please meet our very special Taste Panel Chefs!
Chef Jean-Louis Palladin
Jean-Louis Palladin was a French-born chef who introduced French Nouvelle cuisine to the Washington elite at his restaurant, Jean-Louis at the Watergate. He was the youngest 2 Michelin Star Chef when he first came to America in 1979 and he influenced a generation of French and American chefs.
Jean-Louis was truly a Chef’s Chef, always sharing resourses and working to bring the best ingredients and purveyors to the American market. He was Valentin’s mentor, encouraging him to make a cold pressed grapeseed oil here in America.
We mention frequently how instrumental his influence on Valentin was to pursue a grapeseed oil production and business, making a superior cold pressed grapeseed oil available to professional chefs and home chefs here in America. Salute Santé! is truly a Chef inspired product.
Jean-Louis passed away in 2001 and we have been active with the All the Best, Jean-Louis group since 2019 on a documentary film about the life of Jean-Louis Palladin to pay tribute to his legacy.
Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten
Jean-Georges has made culinary history and developed a reputation as remarkable as his food by tapping his deep understanding of the restaurant world and pairing it with his forward-thinking vision.
From our original taste panel meetings in NYC (he loved my Balsamic Dressing!) to an infamous Investor meal at JoJo Resturant, Jean-Georges has always been there for us!
After receiving our first delivery on the East Coast of our brand new PET 4x1GAL containers in February of 2022, we received an email from the Central Park West Jean-Georges restaurant chefs that they would like to use our Salute Santé! Grapeseed Oil, completeing our personal journey to supply to Chef Jean-Georges.
“We will never use anything else” is a quote we like to recount by a prominent member of the JG team!
In September 2022 Jean-Georges debuted his 10 year project, reinvigorating the old Fulton Fish Market that had suffered immense damage during Hurricane Sandy – the amazing TIN Building in New York’s South Street Seaport.
We are incredibly proud that 10 Salute Santé! products are available at The Marketplace in the TIN building, in addition to using our Food Service packaging in many of his restaurants.
Thank you Chef Jean-Georges!
Chef Daniel Boulud
Daniel Boulud is a French chef and restaurateur with restaurants in New York City, Palm Beach, Miami, Toronto, Montréal, Singapore, the Bahamas, and Dubai. He is best known for his eponymous restaurant Daniel, opened in New York City in 1993, which currently holds two Michelin stars.
We had a wonderful reunion with Chef Daniel at the French Ambassadors residence in Washington DC in 2021 for the All the Best, Jean-Louis filming for the documentary celebrating the life of Jean-Louis Palladin, where he invited us to an amazing dinner at his flagship restaurant in NYC, Daniel.
Merci Chef Daniel!
